Gorgonio Fire held to 550 acres

BANNING - After a swift response and aggressive attack from the ground and air, fire crews were able to keep the Gorgonio Fire to 550 acres overnight and reach full containment, officials said Sunday.

Highway 243 remained closed Sunday as 556 firefighters battled the wildfire. Officials were not sure when the highway might be reopened. The cause of the fire had not been determined, fire officials said.

The Gorgonio Fire began Saturday shortly before noon and became the second major wildfire in four days in the area. The flames eventually reached 100 feet high.

Temperatures had cooled down significantly, but firefighters were dealing with 15 mph to 20 mph sustained winds, which could cause flare-ups, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Smith on Sunday.

In addition to the winds, crews on the ground were having to deal with steep, rugged terrain. The fire was burning at the 4,000-foot elevation, where the humidity is lower, he said.

Smith said crews could be there for the next couple of days.

Smith said firefighters are relying on helicopters to fight the fire in areas inaccessible to crews on foot.

"We're confident we'll make significant gains today, but given the extreme remote locations and difficulty of accessing the fire, it's going to be a challenge," Smith said Sunday before full containment was reached.

Because of the remote location and no access to hydrants, eight water tenders have been brought in to supply water for the fire engines.

Today marks the start of Wildfire Awareness Week, a statewide initiative aimed at getting people prepared for wildfires.

The week is meant to serve as a reminder before fire season starts. This year, however, fire officials have responded to more wildfires than the same time a year ago.

"We're seeing fires in the first week of May that we really wouldn't get until July or August," Smith said.

On Saturday, wind gusts topping 20 mph increased the size of the fire from 300 acres to 550 acres in less than an hour in the early afternoon. By evening, crews were able to stop the progress of the fire.

Cal Fire used more than 400 firefighters, 41 fire engines, seven water-dropping air tankers, two helicopters and two bulldozers. A DC-10 was also brought in to drop fire retardant.

Officials say the wind created spot fires on the south side of the San Gorgonio Pass, south of the 10 Freeway.

No structures were threatened, and no evacuations were ordered, authorities said.

The Gorgonio Fire was in same general area as the deadly Esperanza Fire of 2006 in which five firefighters were killed, but the area has had nearly seven years for brush to grow back.

At 6 p.m. Saturday, fire crews working on the Summit Fire, which broke out on Wednesday on the north side of the San Gorgonio Pass, said they had achieved 100 percent containment.

But that was not before the fire burned 3,166 acres, forced hundreds of evacuations earlier in the week, injured at least two firefighters and destroyed at least one structure, officials said.

Fire crews were still on scene, making sure tat they had full control of the fire and that no flare-ups could occur.

The agencies involved included the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Cal Fire/Riverside, California Highway Patrol-Indio, Morongo Fire Department, Riverside County Fire Department and the U.S. Forest Service.